Bank of America Freezes Gun Company’s Assets

My name is Joe Sirochman owner of American Spirit Arms and I wanted to share my recent experience with Bank of America .(which we have been doing business with for over 10 years)…. Everyone is familiar with the latest increase in guns sales, dealers selling out of inventory, Manufacturers back logged for months, large revenue all generated in the last two weeks…. American Spirit Arms is no exception to the overwhelming demand.

What we have experienced is that our web site orders have jumped 500% causing our web site E commerce processing larger Deposits to BANK OF AMERICA.. Well, this through up a huge RED Flag with Bank of America. So they decided to hold the deposits for further review, meaning that the orders/payments that were coming in through the web, (being paid by the customer and that were shipped out by American Spirit Arms), the BANK was keeping (UNDER REVIEW ).. as you could imagine this made me furious…

After countless hours on the phone with BANK OF AMERICA I finally got a Manager in the right department that told me the reason that the deposits were on hold for FURTHER REVIEW …HER EXACT WORDS WERE …

..” WE BELIEVE YOU SHOULD NOT BE SELLING GUNS and PARTS ON THE INTERNET “…

I flipped the F**k Out and told them that they have no right to make up their own new rules and regs..that we are a firearms Manufacturer with all the proper licensing FFL (Federal Firearm license), SOT and that we follow all Federal and All States’ rules and regulations on shipping Firearms and parts ..and that we are also Audited by ATF and Homeland Security on a regular basis …

She said that she understands that but that the deposits will be released After they have a Chance to review and clear them …I told her that This was unacceptable and the those deposits (that were a week old by now ) needed to be released ASAP, that we are a small business and rely on the revenue to run and stay operational.

After that being said another Manager got involved and released one of the deposits (to help out)… So far to date after Two weeks of sales only 1/3 of collected internet sales have been released.. I am still pissed and looking for another Bank and options …

(Bolded for emphasis, and some spaces, breaks, and formatting issues from Facebook corrected, phone number X’d out, but is there on his FB page.)

Interesting how a bank that received a massive government bailout has now decided to go out and freeze assets of a gun company at the same time the Obama administration has declared that they will be using economic pressures and influence on private companies in their campaign against gun rights, as reported by the Washington Post.

The White House is weighing a far broader and more comprehensive approach to curbing the nation’s gun violence than simply reinstating an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, according to multiple people involved in the administration’s discussions.

…

To sell such changes, the White House is developing strategies to work around the National Rifle Association that one source said could include rallying support from Wal-Mart and other gun retailers for measures that would benefit their businesses.

Right now it’s probably just Bank of America exercising their own stupid anti-gun policies, but it is interesting timing, and the kind of thing that would be both effective and “under the radar“.

We closed our Bank of America account a few years ago when we found out they were giving loans and credit cards to illegal immigrants. Why is anybody that believes in the Constitution or American sovereignty still dealing with BoA?

[…] All Obama’s done is introduce uncertainty into the gun & ammo market. People are buying because of uncertainty over governmental policies, inflation, metals prices, how international trade will mess with those prices, as well as concern for future governmental interference in the market (in violation of the Second Amendment), and so on. That massive uncertainty has driven up demand, but also screwed up the supply side of the equation. Manufacturers aren’t going to go out and start investing in new CNC machinery to provide more capacity. They don’t know if they’re going to be driven out of business, have the banks they put their money in threatened, or have the banks freeze their assets entirely due to politics. […]